NEWS [UO.Com] The Silver Gate

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In anticipation of the release the Time of Legends we are kicking off a series of in-game live events to shepherd in this exciting time within Britannia! Check out shard Event Moderator websites and in-game town criers to find out when these events will be held. Without further ado we present,

The Silver Gate

By: EM Malachi

The Stranger aligned the last gem in its place within the ritual circle. Mana began to pool between the four gems, pulled to the tower from each of the four continents. Pausing briefly to focus his mind, the Stranger whispered an ancient incantation, carefully shaping the mana into a delicate silver gate. When the moongate was stable enough for passage, the Stranger picked up his sword and stepped through.

Hawkwind, the Time Lord, solemnly watched the Stranger's actions. When the gate closed, he held his breath for what would come. It might have been minutes, an hour, or a day, but then the world shattered. The mountain range near the tower crumbled and shifted, cutting Stonegate off from the rest of the world. Where the gate had been, mana surged and made the gems vibrate until all, even the diamond, shattered.

The Time Lord pulled back his perspective to see the rest of Sosaria suffering the same Shattering. Mountains crumbled, and islands sank, reshaping the four continents. Mana storms and boiling seas doomed countless species to extinction. In the devastation, empires and kingdoms were lost forever. A single Sosarian timeline splintered into hundreds, one for each shard of Mondain's cursed gem.

Having seen enough, Hawkwind submerged himself in the currents of these timelines, experiencing the flux of five hundred years. There was a growing discord there, as if time itself were smashing against a rock. He knew the source of this turbulence: Shadowguard. Built by the awesome power of Mondain’s gem and maintained by Minax’s enchantment, Shadowguard was a fortress held separate from space and time, protected from even Hawkwind’s sight.

In the past, Minax had used the fortress’s safety to lash out against Britannia. Now, with the assistance of Anon, Minax was discovering what else she could do with the magics of Shadowguard. Her malice was a growing presence in the timelines. Equal parts erratic and brilliant, Minax could not be allowed to wield the power to unravel history itself.

To stop her, the Time Lord would need similar gems: a ruby the color of sunset, a diamond like frozen tears, a flawless imperial emerald, and a dragon’s eye sapphire. Hawkwind considered quietly plucking the gems from various points in history, but he was reminded of the scar given to him by the Shadowlord Astaroth. His mortal form had never completely healed after the incident in Moonglow. He could not do this alone, nor was this a time for secrecy. This was a time for legends.

*****

A nightmare had caused the early waking. As the great beast stretched its wings for the first time in half a millennium, it roared, scattering every living thing for miles. Taking to the sky, its ebon wings blotted out the sun, their every beat shaking even the eldest trees of the Corrupted Forest.

Claws tore into the mountain, cleaving aside stone to reveal the cavern where its hoard was hidden. Instantly, the wyrm knew not a piece had been taken nor touched. It roared its joy, causing a landslide on an opposing cliff. Scaled limbs sank into the treasure, raking aside gold coins and bars to reveal a cluster of gems. Two talons snatched up a prized sapphire. The dark blue gem reflected perfectly the black dragon’s eye.

The nightmare had forewarned that someone would be coming to take the gems away. Enraged, the dragon let loose a burst of flame that liquefied a pile of gold.

The Timelord knew what must be done, the free people of Sosaria must band together to destroy Shadowguard. He also knew that the only hope of laying siege to the magical fortress would be found in the technology of the gargoyles. Searching through his library he pulled a dusty tome from the shelf. Sosaria would have to take flight. He brushed off the cover of the text to reveal the title, written in an ancient runic script; Plans For The Construction Of A Hot Air Balloon. In his mind he heard echoes of a voice exclaim "What a fantastic idea!"

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

Nice "reimagined" reference, I wonder how many UO players are going to get it

In Ultima I, the Blue Gem was guarded by the King of the Black Dragon's Castle (though of course he was a human and not an actual dragon...)

More random Ultima trivia:

* In Ultima I, the Stranger had to collect 4 gems to activate the time machine used to reach Mondain's castle in the past. It seems that we're going to do the same in the upcoming events to travel to Minax's Shadowguard in the Time of Legends. The 4 gems were in the possession of 4 kings:
- the Blue Gem was owned by the King of the Black Dragon's Castle in the Lands of the Dark Unknown. Since the black dragon event will take place in the Corrupted Forest, maybe this is a hint that the Dark Unknown was reshaped to Malas after the Shattering in UO?
- the Green Gem was in the hands of the King of Castle Barataria in the Lands of the Feudal Lords, now known as Tokuno in UO. So I'm guessing that one of these events will take place there.
- Shamino had the White Gem in the Lands of Danger and Despair, later known as Serpent Isle in Ultima. Hope to see him again in one of the next events!
- the Red Gem was owned by the Lost King in the Lands of Lord British

* The "time machine" in Ultima I was replaced by time-traveling Silver Gates in Ultima II, luckily the fiction on uo.com goes with this retcon...

Stratics Veteran

Funny but that was how I interpreted it. Guess I was just being hopeful. On some shards the Luna shopping experience is pitiful.

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Was thinking the same thing about shard merger and how stupid that may be, how many people will quit if they lose their shard. With Vendor Search I shop a whole lot more out of Luna. Luna better get their junk together because prices are cheap out of the city and just as easy to get to now.

You know, it really would be cool if they introduced silver steeds as tameable "virtue" pets and a midrange vice version. Both could be less powerful than dread warhorses to mollify those owners but have benefits that are vvv specific, like a special "trick" that only works in a vvv active town. How awesome would it be to ride a silver steed to an altar and say "defend" and a white cloud of paralyzing damage roll out. Man that would AWESOME.

Stratics Veteran

It's amazingly sad how we have fiction and events looming and people jump to shard mergers.

Anything else I mighy to have to add to or say about this, positive or negative, I guess just doesn't matter given that the interest of Stratics seems primarily not to be on the fiction or the event. Fortunately I suspect that Stratics posters aren't representative of players on this issue or on many others.

I have been waiting for an awesome fiction/event arc since Inu! The whole arc that lead up to KR was AMAZING! I do hope that they surpass that with the lead-up to this upcoming expansion.

while KR did not have a very long life, the events that lead up to the discovery of it were, by far, one of the best times I've had. I still remember getting chills when Inu kept repeating *kingdom REBORN...kingdom REBORN*

Though it has been said that this will be an EM event series, so it won't be a global event like the Inu/KR event, I hope that it has the same feel.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

It's amazingly sad how we have fiction and events looming and people jump to shard mergers.

Anything else I mighy to have to add to or say about this, positive or negative, I guess just doesn't matter given that the interest of Stratics seems primarily not to be on the fiction or the event. Fortunately I suspect that Stratics posters aren't representative of players on this issue or on many others.

-Galen's player

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Hello, McFly...hello?

Did you go back to a future in which WBB is actually populated? ;P

Seriously though, why would you complain about people talking about mergers (jokingly or not) when you could have supported what you claim to care about by liking/appreciating Sir_Bolo's post and extending upon that, and the posts people made in this thread in support of the lore? I think you take things a little too seriously, sir.

For those who have Shard Shields, UO has already merged to an extent. And it's fairly awesome. I'm not sure a merger is really a bad thing in that regard except for its current exclusivity. Merger /= end of UO.

Stratics Veteran

Seriously though, why would you complain about people talking about mergers (jokingly or not) when you could have supported what you claim to care about by liking/appreciating Sir_Bolo's post and extending upon that, and the posts people made in this thread in support of the lore? I think you take things a little too seriously, sir.

For those who have Shard Shields, UO has already merged to an extent. And it's fairly awesome. I'm not sure a merger is really a bad thing in that regard except for its current exclusivity. Merger /= end of UO.

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I don't use the "like" utility. And posts like yours show just how unwelcome talk of lore and events is on Stratics these days.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

I don't use the "like" utility. And posts like yours show just how unwelcome talk of lore and events is on Stratics these days.

-Galen's player

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I just don't like your passive aggressive troll posts. Before your post there weren't any negative sentiments to this thread, just different things different people wanted. Keep clutching hard on your box of crayons.

Stratics Veteran

I just don't like your passive aggressive troll posts. Before your post there weren't any negative sentiments to this thread, just different things different people wanted. Keep clutching hard on your box of crayons.

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There's nothing about any of my posts that reasonably fits either label you've ascribed to them, but I do agree that random negative labeling, however unreasonable, is a most excellent tactic here on Stratics. Other suggested random labels include "biased," "communist," and several others. All of which, on Stratics, mean "stuff I don't like."

Based on what I see in some of the shard forums and what Tamais said above, it sounds like the EMs are going to do an event next week related to the expansion. On Drachenfels, it is being billed as a "global event" and it's happening in Castle Blackthorn. That makes me think that the EMs might follow a script for this event. If that is the case, I'm wondering if players are going to be squelched and the EMs will follow a script. If so, it would be awesome if some people could capture what is said and post it so those of us who don't get to attend will have some idea of what's going on with the fiction leading up to the expansion.

Stratics Veteran

Based on what I see in some of the shard forums and what Tamais said above, it sounds like the EMs are going to do an event next week related to the expansion. On Drachenfels, it is being billed as a "global event" and it's happening in Castle Blackthorn. That makes me think that the EMs might follow a script for this event. If that is the case, I'm wondering if players are going to be squelched and the EMs will follow a script. If so, it would be awesome if some people could capture what is said and post it so those of us who don't get to attend will have some idea of what's going on with the fiction leading up to the expansion.

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Along these lines I do have to say one thing potentially negative.

I'm a big supporter of the EM program and always have been, even when I rarely got to attend EM Glamdring's events on LS.

I do not, however, like the idea of EM-led global events save on rare occasions (big climax or big kick off for a broader series of events), for several reasons. One of course is that this means that someone who can't make any of the events in effect will miss the global event. Two, though, is that potentially it detracts from the EMs' own events and storylines.

I like the idea of all game-wide events having some content that, though temporary, is persistent. Single-off events are fine too but there always should be some temporary, but persistent, event content. That way if Heaven forbid I can't make any one-off events, I still can say something like "I was there for that war. I helped."

Having said that I don't recall from the post if there was some indication of if all the events will be EM-led or if there'll be some persistent content too! And I don't really feel like looking right now. The fact that it's kicking off, though, with just such an event makes me fret some. And made me fret enough to speak up.

What was everyone's sense? Or have they said one way or another explicitly and I just missed it? Am I worrying prematurely?

Either way: I will be there for GL's event barring disaster and I'll do my damnedest to be at all of them that're held. Even if my worrying is justified, I do think it's a lot better than nothing. It's worlds and worlds better than "suddenly, new stuff appears!"

And thank you very, very much for letting EM Malachi from Great Lakes author that. His knowledge of the lore and, better yet, his ability to turn that knowledge into coherent events that fit into the UO context rarely has been short of stellar.

Stratics Veteran

It's amazingly sad how we have fiction and events looming and people jump to shard mergers.

Anything else I mighy to have to add to or say about this, positive or negative, I guess just doesn't matter given that the interest of Stratics seems primarily not to be on the fiction or the event. Fortunately I suspect that Stratics posters aren't representative of players on this issue or on many others.

-Galen's player

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I think your animosity is misplaced. This event arc is meant to usher in world changing events "an expansion". I think speculation on the end game of these events is perfectly reasonable.

Based on what I see in some of the shard forums and what Tamais said above, it sounds like the EMs are going to do an event next week related to the expansion. On Drachenfels, it is being billed as a "global event" and it's happening in Castle Blackthorn. That makes me think that the EMs might follow a script for this event. If that is the case, I'm wondering if players are going to be squelched and the EMs will follow a script. If so, it would be awesome if some people could capture what is said and post it so those of us who don't get to attend will have some idea of what's going on with the fiction leading up to the expansion.

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Baring any unforeseen rl, I'll be posting the lake austin event with pictures. It will be interesting to see if the EMs have an actual script or if they just have a list of things that must be included.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

I would suggest putting in a high hit point stomper as a boss that has a good drop. Change the drops for the artifacts of the Ararat the reason is simple we could use a monster that has good drops that takes more then one person to kill Thank you

Stratics Veteran

I and my wife find that a lot of Em vents pander to there friends so we dont attend them some shards Ems are wishy washy making mthe shard wait on them to come around and not even have Lake Austin one is one of them.

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

The Time Lord identifies the four gems as "a ruby the color of sunset, a diamond like frozen tears, a flawless imperial emerald, and a dragon’s eye sapphire". We already know that the sapphire is the Blue Gem, but we can also guess about the other three:

* the Lost King's Red Gem is the °ruby the color of sunset". We know that Mondain stole a Sun Ruby from his father King Wolfgang of Akalabeth, and turned it into the Gem of Immortality. Maybe Wolfgang was the Lost King, and he left behind other Sun Rubies hidden somewhere in Sosaria? In fact, we already know that at least one other such gem existed: the Ruby which the Shadowlords were trying to corrupt when Lady Dawn defeated them.
* Shamino's White Gem is the "diamond like frozen tears". Perhaps the frozen tears of Beatrix, his betrothed who was forever separated from him after the Shattering and died of grief on Serpent Isle?
* The Green Gem from the Lands of the Feudal Lords is the "flawless imperial emerald". I bet that it's part of the treasure of the Empress of Tokuno.

I like the idea of all game-wide events having some content that, though temporary, is persistent. Single-off events are fine too but there always should be some temporary, but persistent, event content. That way if Heaven forbid I can't make any one-off events, I still can say something like "I was there for that war. I helped."

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

Last Halloween, we recovered the Prophetic Manuscripts of Owain the Blind from Dungeon Doom. In these manuscript, he describes the visions of the future sent to him by the Time Lord.
One of the prophecies says:

"The greatest treasure of a long-dead king will have the power to save all lands.
Look for salvation in the shadows of the Old Lands, and in the ruins in the stars."

This might very well be a reference to Wolfgang's Sun Ruby.
And apparently we'll have to recover it from Felucca.

This might very well be a reference to Wolfgang's Sun Ruby.
And apparently we'll have to recover it from Felucca.

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That would be difficult, seeing as it was shattered hundreds of years ago, the pieces being scattered hither and yon...Some in player hands, some off in the Void somewhere. Bringing it back together, according to the Sherry's Book, may very well end all life on the non-prime shards. So, let's not do that, m'kay?

Stratics VeteranStratics Legend

That would be difficult, seeing as it was shattered hundreds of years ago, the pieces being scattered hither and yon...Some in player hands, some off in the Void somewhere. Bringing it back together, according to the Sherry's Book, may very well end all life on the non-prime shards. So, let's not do that, m'kay?

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As I posted earlier, my speculation is that

there are other Sun Rubies in addition to the one which became the Gem of Immortality, and we're going to need one of the uncorrupted rubies.

It's just speculation on my part, but it's based on many historical hints, going all the way back to the Samurai Empire prequel events

- Minax was looking for one such ruby in Tokuno -

and to the Stygian Abyss prequel events

- The Shadowlords had found one such ruby and were trying to corrupt it -

Ok this is great and all but why isn't this posted on the main Stratics UO news on the main page? We have these events going on and all and not a word about it until you find it buried back in the forums. If you go to UO.com you will find a lot of news that should be on the main UO Stratics page. Lets show people that are passing through that things are going on! The Focus Group thing should be there too. Just a couple things I've noticed just this week.

Stratics Veteran

Ok this is great and all but why isn't this posted on the main Stratics UO news on the main page? We have these events going on and all and not a word about it until you find it buried back in the forums. If you go to UO.com you will find a lot of news that should be on the main UO Stratics page. Lets show people that are passing through that things are going on! The Focus Group thing should be there too. Just a couple things I've noticed just this week.

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Better yet why isn't it posted on UOs web site? Now that would be NEWS.

In anticipation of the release the Time of Legends we are kicking off a series of in-game live events to shepherd in this exciting time within Britannia! Check out shard Event Moderator websites and in-game town criers to find out when these events will be held.

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